Description and Access in the University Archives

Gregory Wiedeman
University Archivist



M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections & Archives


Collecting Areas and Department History


About us

5 archivists


The University Archives


Collecting Background


SUNY Records Retention

University records are public records, subject to FOIL


Records Collecting in Practice


Prioritizing Born-Digital






Ben Goldman, “Outfitting a Born-Digital Archives Program”
Practical Technology for Archives   Issue 2 (June 2014)


Building an Institutional Records Collecting Program


How do you collect records?



Transfer Scripts


Bag-it


Maintenance


Building Digital Infrastructure


Connections through APIs


APIs help enable maintainable workflows


Tools for Transferring/Accessioning


Open, Interconnected Workflows

  1. Detect a new accession
  2. Post accession record to ArchivesSpace API
  3. Ingest into digital repository
  4. Que for review
  5. Extract existing metadata during description
  6. Post description to ArchivesSpace API
  7. Export data to public access system

Data Modeling


Data Modeling in Archives



Focus on the challenging work, automate the busywork

Not all can or should be automated


DACS

Describing Archives: A Content Standard


Old Priciples, 1-6

  1. Records in archives possess unique characteristics
  2. The principle of respect des fonds is the basis of archival arrangement and description
  3. Arrangement involves the identification of groupings within the material
  4. Description reflects arrangement
  5. The rules of description apply to all archival materials, regardless of form or medium
  6. The principles of archival description apply equally to records created by corporate bodies, individuals, or families

Old Princples, 7-8


Revised Principles, 1-4

  1. Archival description expresses professional ethics and values
  2. Users are the fundamental reason for archival description
  3. Archival description must be clear about what archivists know, what they don’t know, and how they know it.

Records, agents, events, and the relationships between them are the four fundamental concepts that constitute archival description.


Revised Principles, 5-7


Revised Principles, 8-11


DACS Core Elements

* Reference Code (Required)
* Name and Location of Repository (Required)
* Title (Required)
* Date (Required)
* Extent (Required)
* Name of Creator(s) (Required)
* Scope and Content (Required)
* Conditions Governing Access (Required)
* Languages and Scripts of the Material (Required)

* Administrative/Biographical History (Optimum)
* Access points (Optimum)

DACS Added Value Elements

* Finding Aids (Added Value)	
* Custodial History (Added Value)
* Immediate Source of Acquisition (Added Value)
* Conditions Governing Reproduction and Use (Added Value)
* System of Arrangement (Added Value)
* Technical Access (Added Value)
* Physical Access (Added Value)
* Appraisal, Destruction, and Scheduling Information (Added Value)
* Accruals (Added Value)
* Publication Note (Added Value)
* Notes (Added Value)
* Description Control (Added Value)
* Existence and Location of Originals (Added Value)
* Existence and Location of Copies (Added Value)
* Related Archival Materials (Added Value)

DACS Principles revision

What do you think?


Description Exercise


Extensible Processing in the University Archives


Handling Scale with our Principles




Yearbook Collection


Don’t describe containers


General Reference Collection


Provost’s Office Records


Division of Research Records


Digitization on Demand

Users don’t want help finding thigs, they want help getting things


Extensible Processing

What do you think?


Effective Description enables Access


User Experience (UX) Design


User Testing on a Budget


Using Description for Context



Espy Project


Espy Project


Exposing Data in Context


Does Linked Data align with the Archival Mission?

As we start seeing archival collections themselves as data, Linked Data may not be a good fit